Zimbabwe’s violent history of elections has also been accompanied by widespread impunity.9 Few of those implicated in grave abuses either in the 1980s in Matabeleland or during past elections have been brought to justice. This means that little has been done to discourage acts of violence during more recent times. Those who committed past abuses have remained free to carry out further acts of violence and intimidation. Ongoing State Repression Incidents of violence and intimidation carried out by the state have not been limited to election years. The government of Zimbabwe has long been intolerant of criticism, and this has intensified over recent years as the economic situation has collapsed and support for the MDC has grown. Attacks on opposition politicians, civil society activists and journalists, use of unnecessary or excessive force by police forces in quelling peaceful demonstrations, and the use of repressive legislation have remained serious human rights concerns. The brutal police beating of MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai and scores of other MDC and civil society activists on March 11, 2007, underscores the high levels of intolerance and intimidation that have affected the country.10 General Elections in March 2008 The run-up to the March 2008 parliamentary and presidential elections differed significantly from elections in 2000 and 2002 because there was far less violence. However, the serious flaws that marked those elections and the 2005 parliamentary elections remained, and included a partisan and inadequately prepared electoral commission, concerns about pre-poll rigging, unequal access to the state media, and government restrictions on the rights to freedom of association, assembly and 9 Zimbabwe’s long history of impunity for perpetrators of violence and torture is well documented by Human Rights Watch and by organizations such as Redress and Amnesty International. See for example, Redress and the Amani Trust, “Torture in Zimbabwe, Past and Present,” June 2005, http://www.redress.org/publications/Amani2005.pdf (accessed March 11, 2008); Redress, “Zimbabwe: From Impunity to Accountability: Are Reparations Possible for Victims of Gross and Systematic Human Rights Violations?” March 2004, http://www.redress.org/publications/Beyond%20impunityA5.pdf (accessed March 11, 2008); Amnesty International, “The Toll of Impunity,” June 25, 2002, http://web.amnesty.org/library/index/ENGAFR460342002?OPEN&OF=ENG-ZWE (accessed February, 2008); and Human Rights Watch, You Will Be Thoroughly Beaten: The Brutal Suppression of Dissent in Zimbabwe, vol. 18 no. 10(A), November 1, 2006, http://hrw.org/reports/2006/zimbabwe1106/zimbabwe1106web.pdf. Human Rights Watch, Bashing Dissent: Escalating Violence and State Repression in Zimbabwe, vol. 19, no. 6(A), May 2, 2007, http://hrw.org/reports/2007/zimbabwe0507/. 10 “Bullets for Each of You” 12